As High as Honor
by sansdelilah
Summary: About Ned Stark's days as a ward of Jon Arryn set in 277 AC. Ned and Robert are fourteen. Ned has lessons with a gifted new maester; Jon Arryn teaches Ned a lesson about power; Ned begins to realize that his feelings for Robert are getting complicated. (Work in Progress. Feedback Welcome.)


Eddard

The Eyrie, 277 AC

"House Redfort?"

The maester's voice echoed languorously backed from the high stone ceilings of the library. Ned gazed out the open window, surveying the Vale of Arryn far below them. He thought that he could just barely see the tips of the Redfort's battlements across the Mountains of the Moon, which the rising sun had painted shimmering gold. Ned replied dreamily, "A red castle on a field of snow. Redfort is their seat, and As Strong As Stone their words."

"Excellent, Lord Eddard." The maester's chain jingled lyrically as the sound of his hands clapping together rang through the chamber. Ned half-heartedly turned his gaze to the maester's pale blue eyes, which regarded him with an apparent measure of esteem. The maester's eyes seemed small to Ned, and they disappeared when the maester laughed, as he did often, with his bushy eyebrows shimmying about like caterpillars. The man struck Ned as rather young to be a maester, though his auburn hair had already begun to thin on top. He had just arrived at the Eyrie some months before, following the death of old maester Gamlen.

Lord Jon had confided to Ned on the way to dinner on evening that, though this maester had only just completed the forging of his maesterly chain, he was already highly regarded by the Archmaesters of the Citadel as a skilled healer. Ned had remarked that it would be better for such a man to be where he could do more good for the people than at the Eyrie, such as Gulltown, serving the smallfolk of the Vale's only major port. Lord Jon had smiled and tousled Ned's dark curls at that. "You'd be a good and just lord, Ned Stark." The Lord of the Eyrie beamed at his ward and the quiet wolf cracked a rare smile. "But men of such wise counsel are rare enough indeed. A good lord can't afford to refuse wise counsel when offered." Ned's half-thawed smile snapped back to his usual somber edifice, though Jon smiled through dinner.

"You mustn't forget to write it down, Lord Eddard." The maester stood, his gray robes swishing against the white stone of the floor of the library. He rapped his index finger on the sheet in front of Ned. "Lord Arryn would be the first to tell you that a Lord's true measure is the number of inkwells he empties," the maester jested, nodding to to the young lord.

Ned had nearly forgotten the quill he clutched in his hand. The maester's tap had drawn his gaze immediately. The chill morning air had flushed the skin on Ned's hand where it lay, dangerously close to smearing the shining black ink on his list of the minor houses of the Vale. Included were the words, seat and a description of the sigil of each house. Ned had even included a small rendering of House Royce's coat of arms: Black iron studs arrayed on a bronze shield, bordered in arcane runes.

Andar Royce had boasted over dinner to Ned of his family's fabled suit of bronze armor when he and Robert had accompanied Lord Jon to Runestone to consult with Bronze Yohn Royce regarding the recent raiding of travelers in the Mountains of the Moon by the lawless clansmen of the mountains. He had whispered that the symbols inscribed into the armor protected the wearer from harm in battle. Robert had nearly fallen over laughing at that. He then resolved that if there was any truth to the matter, that Andar would don the armor and meet him in the practice yard. He stood and walked out of the dining hall as the young Royce's jaw wagged open, unable to respond the Robert's challenge.

Ned turned his gaze back out over the Vale of Arryn as he finished the last stroke of House Redfort's words. The ships looking for port at Gulltown could be seen as ants crawling along the glassy surface of the distant Narrow Sea. His Lord father should already have left Gulltown early in the morning bound for the Gates of the Moon.

It was the first time he was to see his father since Lord Stark since attending the tourney that Lord Dustin had held in honor of Brandon's sixteenth name day. Ned had accompanied Lord Jon as he had marched to Barrowton with an honor guard of all of the greatest knights of the Vale. The knights flew the red and white of House Hardyng, the Black star and twin peaks of House Elesham and the seafoam wave of the Upcliffs all behind the Moon and Falcon of House Arryn. Ned had held his head high at Jon's right as they rode into Barrowton. He had hoped that his older brother would see him, but Brandon had not been with the welcome party that had greeted them.

Ned had never seen his lord father so happy as that day when Brandon was named champion by Lord Dustin, displaying the proud gray wolf of House Stark on his banners. He had proclaimed Catelyn Tully the Queen of Love and Beauty that day in honor of their recent betrothal. The red roses of the wreath matched perfectly with the Tully red of her gown.

The embattled maester cleared his throat softly, though the high stone walls carried the noise as a stern rebuke, Ned's eyes snapped back the the maester's pleasant blue eyes. The maester continued insistently.

"That's all for heraldry today, Lord Eddard, we shall now be moving on to anatomy. As you know, the body's functions are not all that mysterious to those of us who have studied it's workings." The maester flipped open a weighty tome that he had placed on the table before Ned. "Take, for example, the blood." The links in the heavy chain draped around the man's neck made quiet scraping sounds as he gestured toward a drawing of a leech drawing blood from a man.

The older man opened his mouth to speak but held short as the large wooden doors to groaned open and Lord Jon Arryn swept into the room, elegant in snow white furs. The maester jingled as how bowed to his lord and Ned followed suit. Jon smiled at Ned brightly before turning to the man in gray.

"I do so hate to interrupt your lessons, maester, but I must speak to Ned."

"Of course, my Lord." The maester motioned for Ned to follow Lord Arryn. Abandoning his quill swiftly, Ned made to exit the chamber as Lord Arryn directed. He shuffled into the corridor outside as Lord Arryn bid the maester farewell.

"That will be all for today, Maester Qyburn."


End file.
